


Setsuna: the Moment

by AndromedaofOthys



Series: Dies Irae/Kajiri Kamui Kagura fics [4]
Category: Dies Irae (Visual Novel)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Marie Route (Dies Irae) Spoilers, Mentioned Kajiri Kamui Kagura Characters, Mentioned Marie | Marguerite Breuil, Mentioned Reinhard Heydrich (Dies Irae), Mercurius | Karl Krafft and Fujii Ren's Strange Relationship, Minor Fujii Ren/Marie | Marguerite Breuil, Post-Canon, of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24058873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaofOthys/pseuds/AndromedaofOthys
Summary: Situated in between the ending of Marie Route (compliant with Amor Omnia Vincit side story) and beginning of Kajiri Kamui Kagura, so spoilers!Fujii Ren and Mercurius meet in front of Notre-Dame, and discuss the only thing in the world they agree on: their beloved Goddess Marie and threats to her rule.Featuring very twisted, I-Don't-Even-Know-How-To-Name-It relationship between Ren and Mercurius.
Relationships: Mercurius | Karl Krafft & Fujii Ren
Series: Dies Irae/Kajiri Kamui Kagura fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923934
Kudos: 3





	Setsuna: the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> I've recently been reminded of how much I love Dies Irae visual novel (mostly by finding subbed version of what little we have released for Dies Irae Pantheon which I'm still very sad about), and I had to share the love! The dynamics between Ren and Mercurius are so fascinating, and that's without factoring the whole thing with Lotus and Michael... yah, I just had to write. Sorry not sorry.

Ren Fujii was walking down the streets in Paris, not taking too much notice of the scenery around him - he had all the time in the world to appreciate it afterwards after all. He could simply freeze time there and enjoy himself for all eternity if he truly wished - it was his right as the Hegemony God, the one with the power to sit on the Throne from where he could repaint the universe with his own Law, his own color.

Eternal Moment. That was his wish, wasn’t it? The Law he refused to press upon, to paint the world with his  _ Also sprach Zarathustra _ , because it was so selfish. Moment he may choose to be his best and consequently freeze the world in may be someone else’s worst nightmare; he could not be trusted with such power, and so he handed it into his dear Marie’s much better and more capable hands. She loved so much, it was impossible for her to be anything to gentle and kind to everyone; she was incapable of evil, she simply wasn’t.

He didn’t mind living in the shadow, her shadow even less so; just like Mercurius, that bastard he had a dubious honor of calling creator and father in some sense, he didn’t mind being unimportant. He would probably grow tired of his own world and Law of Eternal Moment, of his own Throne, sooner rather than later, anyway. If anything, Shiro would’ve been a far better candidate for the Throne…

On the second thought, no. Anyone who’d give that nutcase the Throne as anything but last option would be nuttier than a horde of squirrels.

“Setsuna.”

Ren blinked at the familiar voice calling the unfamiliar name, confused for a moment before realizing -

“My name’s Ren, you bastard. I don’t see you calling Reinhard Ougen.”

Mercurius chuckled, walking out from the shadow of the Notre-Dame’s grand entrance, utterly unrepentant and dressed in the uniform of Longinus Dreizehn Orden - mostly identical to the uniform of Gestapo, but with a vastly different black-and-white symbol on the red patch on the right forearm.

Ren finally took his time to analyze the sigil, since he hadn’t gotten the chance before - black square tilted for 45 degrees, with black-and-white circle in the middle and eight white arrow-like points completing the impression of the shining star in the darkness. It was kind of interesting - eight for perfection, star for the guidance, black and white for life and death…

But he wasn’t here to admire the symbology of the long.dead order - he was here to talk business with his sort-of progenitor.

“Do forgive me, Ren- _ kun _ ,” Mercurius raised his hands in apology, eyes dancing with mischievous light. “I do find your little nickname to be too beautiful not to call you by it.”

“Bullshit, you just want to get a rise out of me so you can go to Marie and complain about my bad behaviour later,” Ren snorted with no true malice or resentment. He was a young Hegemony, but he was already used to the way Mercurius spoke and did things, so he didn’t get angry too easily. “Why did you call me here? I thought we agreed not to ever speak again if it’s not necessary.”

“Hm, but you might find it necessary, considering your past,” Mercury said with a charming grin, and Ren rolled his eyes at the theatrics. You could take the God off his Throne and nullify his law, but apparently you couldn’t take that law out of the God.

“I told you before, I don’t care. I’m me - Lotus Reichhart is a man who no longer exists except in memories of those he once knew. I may have part of his soul and your blood, but that makes me no more you or him.”

“Ah, ah, ah, no need for rushing so much,” Mercurius chided him, face reverting to a blank slate Ren had only seen once, just before he had declared his intention to fight Reinhard. “This is a matter that cannot be simply written off as one of my whims. Trust me on this, Fujii Ren.”

Ren raised an eyebrow and mentally prepared himself. Whatever the bastard wanted to say, it was of obvious importance to him, and not many things ranked as ‘important’ to the former God and Ruler of Fourth Heaven - the side effect of immortality and his own  _ Acta est Fabula _ Hegemony that allowed him to see everything as nothing more than a bunch of loops, recurring operas and dramas with no end in sight.

One certainly learned how to prioritise and what to consider important well.

“Okay, I’m listening, Mercurius,” Ren finally decided, and gestured for the other Hegemony to follow him down the street to the bridge connecting the small island Notre-Dame was built on to the rest of Paris. “What’s so important you had to talk to me about?”

“You are aware of the Samsara cult rising, I presume?” Mercurius, atypically for him, went straight for the jugular.

Ren frowned, thinking about it. It had been almost a hundred years since he’d actively been in contact with human world - pseudo-immortality of all of his friends meant that once they separated from the mortal world, he simply didn’t care enough to check on things too much. However, the name was ringing some bells in his head…

“The one that wants to erase the Throne system?” Ren finally recalled, remembering Marie’s fretful dreams on her Throne of  _ Amantes Amentes - Omnia Vincit Amor _ from where she embraced everyone and meddled with nothing. She had seen them, and in fear she had spoken to Ren about their practices.

_ They’re so scary, Ren-kun _ , Marie had said, shivering in her elaborate white dress, flowery decorations in her hair and golden ornaments chiming and mixing in a cacophony of sound and color.  _ I know Throne system is not the best, but to hurt others so much… I do not want to say anything to Ougen, or Cagliostro, just yet - but please be careful? You would never take the Throne from me, I know it, but just in case they try to attack you… please promise me you’ll keep yourself safe. _

At the time, the promise seemed all too easy to make and fulfill - he’ll just stay far away from that cult, and occasionally check in just to be sure they weren’t bringing forth some sort of apocalypse with the latest experiments with human spirituality. Apparently, the issue had grown enough in his absence for Mercurius to notice.

“I’m aware, yes. What of them?”

“I don’t like them,” Mercurius said flatly. “The idea of eliminating the Throne as the way of ruling, as ludicrous as it may sound, is not a one I hadn’t entertained before, but the way they want to go about it is… Our dear Margueritte’s world and Law allows for such miracles, surely there can be an easier, less damaging way of changing systems?”

“Now that you say it, I can see it,” Ren had to agree. The world had galloped ahead with its technological provess; with so many things Ren could not even have thought to imagine existing and many more coming in its wake, he was sure someone, someday would be able to crack the code of the Throne and be able to get rid of it and make a more useful system. “But what do you want me to do? We’re technically not allowed to meddle to the point where we’d contradict Marie’s Law, and I’m in no hurry to die.”

It was the absolute rule of the Hegemonies he, Reinhard and Mercurius had discovered shortly after Marie’s ascendance to the Throne - even though Marie’s  _ Omnia Vincit Amor _ allowed them all to coexist with each other, they were forbidden from doing anything that’d constitute as an attack on her, which included contradicting her Law by using their own Laws.

“I’m not saying you should try and erase yourself from the existence,” Mercurius chuckled. “Do you truly think so lowly of me?”

“Absolutely,” Ren replied flatly, and Mercurius roared in laughter, and yet startling no one around them - the time only flowed for Mercurius and Ren after all in this little bubble.

“Splendid answer! Were I still a God, I admit I might have tried to trick you like this, but I do not wish to see our dear Margueritte sad, and you do make her very happy.”

“We all make her happy,” Ren corrected him, but his heart swelled nonetheless at the acknowledgement of the bond he and Marie shared. “Our very existence makes her very happy.”

“Indeed, that is our Margueritte,” Mercurius nodded. “Now, will you consider what I just said to you, my dear Setsuna? Look out, and be ready for the worst?”

“Shut up old man, I told you not to call me that,” Ren grumbled, aware that it would be of no use - Mercurius had latched onto Ren’s new nickname and would not let go. “And sure. I’d also like to, you know, not die because some idiots can’t be patient enough to wait for the time to do its trick.”

“Mmm, thank you,” Mercurius nodded. “I will start searching for the source of their teachings in the meantime - it does not do well to face an enemy we don’t know anything about.”

“Wait.”

Ren stopped, prompting Mercurius to freeze as well, only one step ahead of him, as the realization of what bombshell Mercurius had just obliquely referred to.

“You’re not saying…? You can’t be serious, right?”

“It’s but a miniscule possibility,” Mercurius shrugged, but his blue eyes were glowing with fiendish fire. “Let your old man do this search - you have other duties you’re much better suited to.”

Ren nodded instinctively, horror and terror still ravaging his insides for a moment, before he realized how Mercurius addressed himself.

“You fucking  _ bastard, don’t you dare call me your son -! _ ”

And their serious conversation ended in an epic chase across frozen Paris, only interrupted by Marie’s gentle tap on their shoulders for them to quit messing around. However, from that day on, Ren took his title as Hegemony of Eternal Moment, the one who could freeze time at will, much more seriously; he even made contingencies for himself, Reinhard, Mercurius and Marie just in case, and prepared Japan for the likely disaster while still listening for the fresh news on the cult.

After all, even one saved life of his friends and loved ones, even the annoying bastards like Mercurius and Reinhard, would be worth it in the end. His Law was  _ Also sprach Zarathustra _ , his nickname Setsuna, meaning  _ moment _ in Japanese; if anyone could defy any Law in a pinch, it would be him.


End file.
